More Crazy Ideas

Uh oh.

I don't know if it is being cooped up or watching cool motocross videos or what, but I have another probably not so smart idea brewing in my head. I think I will blame it on neuro-Lyme. Yeah. It's those little spirochete bastards all up in my brain messing with my logic. That's it.

Let's bring it back to the videos. When filming Lindsey's video for the Boyd Martin clinic, I had a lot of fun. I kind of want to video all the things. I want to make a Bacon video. And a musketeers video. And a horse/moto video.

Wait. A what?

Hellz yeah. A horse/motocross video.

Now, you are probably thinking the hell this chick smoking? I'm telling you, it is the lyme. I swear. What exactly does a horse/motocross (I really need to come up with a word for this combo) video entail?

Off roading

Well, I always thought it would be cool to do trot/gallop sets out where husband rides his bike. Load the pony up in the trailer, load the bike in the trailer, and just ride. It would also be fun to have a video with both me and the hubs in it. I told him this crazy idea, and he went with it. Then I thought about it some more. I could gallop alongside him. He could go through whoops and I could go through bounces. I could side pass behind him while he wheelies. He could jump and I could jump his motorcycle (my favorite part of this whole idea). He hesitated a little bit with that one, but agreed that that wold be cool.

I waited for hubs to totally shoot the idea down, but instead, like usual, he encouraged me. Sure, his wife is crazy, but he thought she we crazy before the Lyme disease struck. He was washing his bike on Saturday and we both took a good hard look at it and went over the best place to jump it. It sits at about 3'6" on the stand, and is only about a foot wide. The tricky part will be aiming for the back half and to stay away from the handle bars. Which gives me about 2.5' of back end and not a lot of room for mistakes. He looked at me and said "You better practice your skinnies. Better get that blue barrel and be able to jump it vertically." Yes, sir.

Plague doctors can jump 3'6".

He is also already thinking about where to mount the camera and having a counter balance tripod and stuff like that. He thinks we should rent a fancier professional 4k camera, but now I think we may have gone overboard. There are other things to determine. Things like which places he rides at will have good footing for the both of us and how Bacon will react to galloping next to a motorcycle. If she has difficulty with jumping the butt end of the bike, we talked about putting two bikes together to make it a lot wider for her. And jumping things like loading ramps and tires. He really wishes he could jump over me while I jump something, but that would require a very large double for him to jump.

Jump the things

And if Bacon says HELL NO, then obviously, we won't be doing any of this. But she lives next to where he washes and starts his bike and has never been worried about it one bit. She has watched him ride around in a pasture. We will have a lot to work on before jumping his bike. But we can practice over the little bikes too. And we will have to do quite a few training sessions and practice runs, but I believe she can do it and will do it for me.  Because she is crazy as well.

Can we be crazy together? Yes, we can.

So, this idea may not be the brightest or safest. But I've been rolling it around in my head and it just seems like it needs to happen. Perhaps it is very Idaho. We already have the song picked out though, so you can share your thoughts on that. Or on this whole thing. If you have even more to add to it, let me know! Or camera recommendations. It is a shame I can't get any sponsors (I'm looking at you, Aztec Diamond, because I would rock the shit out of those black snakeskin breeches in this video). I know this in no way will help fun my horse shows this season, but if I can't go to any of those at least I can say I did complete something wicked awesome.

Looking for our minds

Something to be Excited About

Woo woo!

I know that some of you saw this already, but I am still pretty pumped about it and it should be documented on the blog. Bacon and I were lucky enough to be randomly chosen for the 4th Annual Back on Track Essay Contest put on by Horse Nation. Bacon and I get to take home a saddle pad (we chose a black dressage pad!) and it is just a nice little piece of happiness for me right now.

She is excited about her new pad.

You can read the essay here, but basically it details how Bacers has been therapeutic in my life. I have wanted a Back on Track item for forever (especially a mesh sheet) but funds are going to every other thing. I danced right out off of the couch when I got the email from Horse Nation. What a joy.

You can't tell me those aren't the longest legs you've ever seen.

Speaking of therapeutic, the hubs demanded I give the chiropractor a whirl. He took radiographs of us before Christmas and shared his findings with us last week. I have an additional curve in my neck (bad) and the view from behind shows that my back is bent like a backwards C (also bad). He asked me if they bothered me and I had to tell him that sometimes I can tell, but other things cause more pain that kind of cancel the back and neck pain out. Though some days I find it hard to hold my head up but I have just now been realizing that. Hubs already has bone spurs in his neck, most likely from all of the motorcycle crashes, so he will be receiving treatment too. I am skeptical, but if he can provide some relief (and allow me to ride better!) it should be worth the cost and time.

Dancing

The ponies were excited too because I finally let them out of their pens. The ground was super muddy and slippery, and then it froze and it just wasn't safe to let them out. And I know it has been over a month. I was surprised at how calm Bacon was when I first let her out. She was the first one and just sniffed around. Vegas could barely control her excitement as she waited for her turn. They all had manners when I took them out, and then they had a little fun. It is still a little slippery and I was surprised that they didn't haul ass and fall all over. It made me happy to see them happy.

Unicorn is FREEEE

Not a buck I want to ride

WILD

WHAT'S THAT?!?!

What Lucy looks like without a neck

Hover Goose

Majestic Goose

Jumping the stick and dreaming of XC

Hover Pandy

Strolling for a good roll spot

Found it

She found it too

Making a mess, she is really good at that.

Hello little Panders

Paint girls

Wild fuzzy unicorn

Derp face in the background

Bacon wishes Lucy would play with her. Or that anyone would play with her.

If only Vegas was in there.

The goats are also extra fluffy and cute right now. And the dogs are still smelly and slimey. I can't believe that Moo will be turning 10 years old next month. Such an old lady dane, but still looking pretty good. I hope I get to keep her for a while longer.

Ewwww

He is like a slinky

No, I'm not walking to go crap in your arena. Don't know what you are talking about.

Daaawww

GOAL Time!

Galloping full speed ahead into 2016

2016 is here. Will it be a good year? Will Bacon and I kick ass? Will we get more awesome photos jumping and dressaging? I hope the answers to those questions are yes. But, we shall see! I am not as motivated or excited to write down our goals for this year and I am not quite sure why. I think it may be our slight money troubles and my horse's feet that are making me doubt the year, but I really don't want to start it that way. So let's pick out some fun things to shoot for.

1. Compete at a USEA sanctioned event
       I would so love for this to happen this year. It didn't happen last year and it put a dent into my excited little heart. If this were to happen, it would become un-dented, I just know it. I feel like Bacon and I could show up and compete and finish and have a blast.

Please please please please please

2. Become a better dressage rider
       I need to be a better rider if we are going to get better scores and for Bacon to understand what I want from her. I confuse myself up there, and if I can't figure it out, how can she? This means trying to get some lessons and I know my great friends will try to help me out to get this done. If we want to get to our musical freestyle, we need to do this. And read and watch dressage, even if it kills me a little bit.

No more t-rex arms! Effective leg aids! Sit back! Penis!

3. Get Bacon's feet in good order
       Too bad there isn't a magical potion I can pour onto her frogs to make them come back from contracting RIGHT NOW and grow and be the cushiony supportive insoles she needs them to be. I need to find the right tools to help her correct her feet and make her comfortable at the same time. Currently she is wearing frog support pads with Magic Cushion to fill the gap between her foot and the pad, and our farrier thinks we are the right direction. Her heels are already looking better as well.

No hoof no horse. I'm keeping this one damnit.

4. Be less of a passenger while jumping and more of a constructive rider
      This may be a bit detailed, but it needs to be done. If we want to jump bigger jumps and handle tougher questions, I need to again better myself as a rider. I know Bacon will take me there and jump it, but it would be nice if I could help us both out.

I know she will still have to save me, but hopefully less.

5. Play around with more reining stuff on Pandora and Vegas
      If I am feeling well enough, ride these two western girls and strengthen their skills. They both have the basics but could use a lot more refinement and work. Ride Lucy in a dressage saddle if husband allows, and also get his ass out there on some horses too!

Ready to spin and slide.

6.  Jump and answer some training level questions
        I hope this happens because I bet it would be a crap ton of fun.

And look good doing it.

7. Try to fight through the sickness
       Feeling sick and weak holds me back a lot. This is always a constant battle but I need to remind myself that I can push through and get a lot of things done if I don't dwell. Sometimes I push too hard and make myself worse, so I need to find that line between pushing too hard.

Whiners are weeners. Winners get ribbons.

8. Go hiking!
       We did three hikes last year, with Goat Lake being the biggest and best. Hubs is very excited to keep doing this as long as I can and we have a couple different trips planned out. Including overnight stays so I get to rest before heading back down. Most of my Christmas presents from him were hiking and camping related (though he knows better and still bought me a couple of horsey things) and he got a backpacking tent and other supplies from other people. My brother and my dad want to join us as well and I will really enjoy the family trips.

I am still exhausted thinking about that hike, but it is hard to beat that view and not feel somewhat accomplished.

A new year always brings so much excitement with it. Will it beat last year? Possibly. I know for sure that more memories will be made and that I will get to share them with all of you.

Year End Recap!

What did the year look like for us? It was filled with a variety of fun and some not so fun, but such is life. Bacon and I kept ourselves busy when I was feeling up to it and when she didn't have sore tootsies. Let's take a look at what 2015 had in store for us.

January
There was no riding during this month. Because we are in Idaho and winter is mean and frozen and gross when you don't have an indoor. But, hubs and I did go on our honeymoon cruise to Mexico! And I met my ENT doctor, who also concluded that I have Lyme disease. I also announced that I would be leaving my job as a veterinary assistant because of the sickness. Boo.

February
Husband bought a new motorcycle, because he is evil. I was excited because I rode two days in a row and I hadn't been able to do that. I did a blog hop on fear in the horse world and we worked on dressage in the pasture.

March
Bacon had some lameness, the first in over a year. I was so very worried. And then, DUH, thrush. She had been living in mud for months, and that had been a battle. Everybody got their teeth done and I laughed like a horrible person at the line of drugged ponies. Bacon's feet were better and I got to ride in the Nicole Cobb clinic on my birthday on day one! And then on our second day, I had an asthma attack and was completely embarrassed.

April
We got our awesome trailer (that we still don't have a truck to pull) this month. It was a circus, but it is awesome. I had my nasal/sinus surgery and promptly two weeks later, traveled to Utah and rode in a clinic. It was Bacon and I's first out of state outing, and despite the rain canceling the xc riding, we had a lot of fun. The horses were electric because of the xc was in the middle and around a horse track, complete with trains right next to us and soccer fields as well. It was also our first indoor experience.

May
We started May out with a ton of fun had in our first jumper show. We competed in the 2'9" and 3' division both days and came out with lots of ribbons and reserve champs for 3'. We also competed in a dressage schooling show and scored a personal best of 33 for the Novice A test. It was the most relaxed we had ever been. We also picked out Blake's new kids, Mr. Mayhem and Reaper! Annnd I learned my Grandpa Frank had leukemia and that my insurance company did not want to cover my surgery.

June
Regardless of the sadness, we still had a good time in June. We started out doing a clinic with Jan Byyny and it was awesome. First day was stadium day and second day was xc. That same weekend we competed in our first novice derby. Though we struggled getting our left lead again in dressage, it was still a good test and we finished on our score of 35. The horse races began too and we started with a win! We competed in our second novice derby and had our first run out on xc because I lost a stirrup and my arm band slid down and got caught on my hand between the sunken road. We also brought the goaties home.

July
I only posted 3 times in July. I was feeling pretty sick and didn't ride much. My mom and grandma came to visit from Arizona though, and we revisited one of my most favorite places on earth. Stanley Lake. My brother and I looked at the map on the trail and made a vow to come back and hike up to Goat Lake. The goats kept my busy and happy and I shared my new goal of hiking to Goat Lake and my husband pushing to make that happen sooner rather than later.

August
I learned that Slipknot would be coming to Idaho in October on this month! We completed my goal of hiking to Goat Lake, which was worth the torture and almost dying. We also won two Idaho Cup races that same weekend. I rode Vegas in the CWD and it was pretty laughable. She determined that she would rather be a western pony. I also did one of my favorite posts, the one where I shared what other objects my horses look like.

September
I saw a new doctor I hoped would help me, but he couldn't and I pouted some more. Hubs and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary and I got to ride the Baconator a little more. We had a fun pony day and got fun pictures and a new stirrup position. We still struggled with lameness and had the vet out, who decided it was her frogs that were the bain of our existence. I felt so stupid because I never realized it and failed at hoof knowledge. Despite the feet issues, we still had a fun pony weekend at the end of September and worked on dressage.

October
Bacon and I had the super farrier come out and put fancy feet on. The result ended with us competing in our last novice derby of the season. We defeated the sunken road with no issues this time and came out with a first place. And my horse survived being braided. My horse came up with a stupid swollen knee and no lameness, we had more pony weekends with friends and discovered truffle fries. We went to the Slipknot concert (wee!) and I convinced my husband to let me ride Lucy in the dressage saddle. AND competed in our last show of the season, a jumper show, in 2'9" and 3', on a fire breathing dragon and hit our new personal best in height dressed as a plague doctor and a carcass horse.

November
I offered up my cartoon services and so many of you ordered some (thank you soooo much!) and my mom became extremely ill again and required hospitalization for the third time this year. And I did a couple of blog hops. Life slowed down quite a bit after October.

Zoom Zoom month!

December
Ah, here we are now. Not much riding has happened, but I did get to ride in an indoor again this month. On the most obnoxious my horse has ever been. And I did get to ride her again the other day before it dumped snow and froze, and again it was a little exciting. My horse bucked with me for the first time ever and I laughed. We got the pens filled with road mix, mats and sand. And I stated my musical dressage goals!

I hope your year was kind to you. You never know how it is going to play out, and even though I could have done without the expensive surgery, lameness, sicknesses, and money issues, there was a lot to be excited about. Now it is time to go out into the 17 degree weather to go clean some frozen pens!